This is the best thread this forum has produced in some time. I have re-read it several times and appreciate all of the opinions and points of view offered. Y'all made me rethink my own position on the matters discussed here. I've refrained from posting as it has developed because every time I thought I had something to say, eminart said it for me. Bravo.
sophiedufort, I will address you directly now because I believe to patronize someone is about the biggest insult I can pay another adult, and I respect the way you've handled yourself here enough to be blunt with you. I believe you are wrong, and, frankly, a bit nuts. That is my opinion, take it for whatever it is worth to you. What you do in the privacy of your own home is your business, but that you honestly believe your snakes like to be kissed on the head amazes to me. It flies in the face of everything I know to be true about snakes. Even if snakes are capable of some form of primitive emotion I simply can not fathom a snake enjoying a human kissing them on the head. This type of statement can only further the public's perception that people who keep snakes are freaks, and I adamantly maintain that I do not keep snakes because I'm a freak. I keep them because I am utterly fascinated by them. I keep them because I love animals, I love nature, I love learning about them, and studying them in both natural and captive settings. I want to know as much about them and their role in the natural world as possible. I am a skeptic, I want truth, facts, knowledge. This is where you and I are so fundamentally different. We perceive the world in very different ways.
You like kissing your snakes,
you get something out of it. The snake does not. It only puts up with it. The snake has learned (this is where verbiage gets a little sticky, I'll explain myself in a moment) that you are not a threat and touching its head does not trigger a fight or flight response. Now just how much the snake can actually "learn" I don't know. I use the word "learn" because I don't have a better term in my vocabulary. To say it learns implies this is knowledge it can actively employ and I don't know if this is the case, or if it is simply a conditioned response. For the most part I believe it to be a conditioned response, but I agree there is much we do not know about the reptilian brain. What I do know is that the snake does not like being kissed on the head. I think you are badly misreading your snakes behavior in many ways. Look, I admire your love for your animals and respect your opinions, but I do worry about some of your habits. Whether you like it or not, handling the snakes for long periods of time is stressful for the animals. If you really do want what is best for your snakes I implore you to take a hard look at how often and long you have them out.
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Originally Posted by mistersprinkles
The reptilian brain is a very simple computer. I don't believe, at all, that it is capable of "higher emotions". I've had snakes since I was 5. I'm in my early 30s now. I have had very docile snakes but I never once felt like my snake was loving, self aware, or even capable of moderately complex thought, for that matter.
Snakes have "modes", as Steve Irwin used to say. Resting mode, mating mode, hunting mode, eating mode, exploring mode. That's it. It's like a Commodore 64 with scales.
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There are quite a few statements in this thread that rang true to me, but this is a gem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron_S
This thread took a turn to "light hearted" banter.
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Discussing which comic book character is the most promiscuous didn't seem relevant to the subject matter at hand, or even anything to do with this forum. It looked like a rather blatant and juvenile attempt to derail an otherwise interesting thread.
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